How many see merchants asking not to use Amex?

[Anonymous]

If a place doesn't take Amex/Credit Cards I generally avoid shopping there because it generally means there's other parts of their business practices I won't enjoy either..

[Noctilum]

I have never been asked to not use my Amex, but I have found that the things I pay for (outside of gas and groceries) do not accept it so I had to drop it.

[Anonymous]

In my area the only places I run into that won't take Amex are usually small family-owned restaurants. 

It's interesting because they often have Amex-branded receipt trays or those leather-ish booklet things, yet add a note that they do not accept Amex.

They usually all have signs indicating that they accept Visa/MC/Discover/UnionPay/JCB

[Anonymous]

Assuming you're using the BCP on gas and grocery, you should not have any problems. I have not run into a grocery store (or what AmEx considers grocery) in which I have no been able to use mine. Any major chain store is not going to give you any problems. Same with the majority of all gas stations. Maybe if you shop or get gas from some Mom and Pops shops you'll run into that issue.

It's only been two times that me and my wife has run into a place that does not accept AmEx over the past 2 years and we strickly use AmEx 99% of the time. 

[K-in-Boston]

These days, I run into places that do not accept credit cards at all more frequently than those that don't take AmEx.  In addition to the Shop Small program, AmEx has the OptBlue program for merchants now.  Before, the two reasons smaller merchants didn't accept it was because a.) they had to call AmEx directly to set up an account and negotiate rates and b.) very small businesses usually don't have the sales volume to negotiate favorable rates with AmEx.  

The reason that Discover acceptance has grown so much the past few years is that they have virtually eliminated direct merchant relationships, and card processors (the middleman that merchants are charged by) now handle Discover with the same markups as Visa and MasterCard.  AmEx is pushing this for small businesses now with OptBlue and the rates for merchants should be substantially cheaper than previously for many merchants.  It's good for AmEx because acceptance rates will climb quickly and because they can mostly get out of the processing part of their business for merchants who aren't doing millions in annual AmEx sales.  The downside is that card processors are notoriously sketchy; most merchants will still be paying more for AmEx than they should because the markups will be higher since "everyone knows AmEx is just more expensive."  I also see a lot of small businesses using Square Register, and with those companies it's a flat rate regardless of card network.

[DeeBee78]

Welp, I think you guys jinxed me, lol.

Today at lunch, no less than FIVE separate signs that only showed Visa/MC logos. Got to the cashier to pay for my food and she said no Amex, no Discover.

Bites, because I need to use my Amex ED card for a spend bonus! 

[Chickenpotpie]

relatively few.   There's one grocery store that I like to go to on the weekends that dosen't accept amex.  they take discover, so its all good.  They also take visa/mastercard, again all good.

I don't let it ruin my day basically...

[garagebandking]

Ive been trying to use my Amex Plat to meet the spend requirement, apparently my chiropractor doesn't take Amex, but accepts Disco.

[cjesser15]

Just to add one more testimonial, I live in a decent sized city (population around 200K) and everyone takes MC, Visa, and even Discover but there are quite a few places that don't take Amex. Most are local or regional businesses, however. Chains all seem to take it. I've also been told a few times when asking they "prefer" Visa or MC but they'll take Amex if I have to.

[Anonymous]

I have only run into 3 places where my AMEX wasn't excepted. 1 is Goodwill, the other 2 are both local Mom&Pop stores that really prefer cash anyway.